2 Kings 17:27

27 So Assyria's king commanded, "Return one of the priests that you exiled from there. He should go back and live there. He should teach them the religious practices of the local god."

2 Kings 17:27 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 17:27

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying
Gave the following orders and directions:

carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence;
for they carried away all the people of every class, civil and religious:

and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of
the God of the land;
it is in the plural number, "let them go" {o}; there might be more priests than one ordered, or, however, others, to attend and assist him in his work; the Jews say ^F16, two were sent to circumcise them, and teach them the book of the law; and they give their names, Dosthai, or Dosithaeus, and Zachariah; and Josephus ^F17 says, the people desired that priests might be sent to them of the captives.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F15 (wbvyw wkly) "eant et sedeant", Montanus.
F16 Pirke Eliezer, c. 38.
F17 Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 3.

2 Kings 17:27 In-Context

25 But when they began to live there, they didn't worship the LORD, so the LORD sent lions against them, and the lions began to kill them.

26 Assyria's king was told about this: "The nations you sent into exile and resettled in the cities of Samaria don't know the religious practices of the local god. He's sent lions against them, and the lions are killing them because none of them know the religious practices of the local god."

27 So Assyria's king commanded, "Return one of the priests that you exiled from there. He should go back and live there. He should teach them the religious practices of the local god."

28 So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria went back. He lived in Bethel and taught the people how to worship the LORD.

29 But each nationality still made its own gods. They set them up in the houses that the people of Samaria had made at the shrines. Each nationality did this in whichever cities they lived.

Footnotes

• [a]. LXX, Vulg, Syr; MT They